Cast and Reef at Ragley Hall's Camper Calling festival

Liverpool indie rockers Cast will join rock legends Reef and pop stars The Lightning Seeds at the three-day family festival. Following a successful inaugural event last year, the festival is returning to the stunning grounds of Ragley Hall tonight, tomorrow and on Sunday.

The event is the brainchild of the team behind Camper Jam at Weston Park, on the Shropshire and Staffordshire border.

And the music and entertainment extravaganza quickly established itself as one of the area’s finest family friendly, boutique music festival featuring some of the best loved bands and emerging new music.

For 2017 the promoters are hoping to grow the festival even further.

Shelley Bond, events director, says: “We know our core audience are big Britpop fans and it is a huge honour to announce Cast, Reef and The Lightning Seeds as our headliners. I know they’re going to blow the crowd away.

“The Camper Calling team is dedicated to creating an eclectic line-up for this year.

“Camper Calling 2016 exceeded all of our expectations and was a staggering success for the team and we are, therefore, determined to make 2017 even better than our first year. We already know that there is going to be a fantastic party atmosphere . . . It’s going to be a great weekend of live music for the whole family – see you down the front.”

The organisers of Camper Calling have pulled out all the stops to ensure that the August bank holiday weekend is filled with a host of family friendly activities, from craft workshops to campfire tales, lake activities to children’s circus shows.

There will be several live music stages, craft workshops, scrumptious street food, AüguztFest for the connoisseur of fine beer with a live Oompah Band, a fun fair, and an array of outdoor activities for visitors of all ages.

The event is set in the opulent grounds of the Ragley Hall estate within 400 acres of parkland, woodland and gardens of Ragley Hall. Surrounded by 27 acres of delightful ever-changing gardens, the parkland contains the children’s adventure playground, woodland walk, and lakeside picnic area. Reef will headline the Saturday night slot. They enjoyed plenty of success in the 90s, especially with their hit single Place Your Hands. Now with Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s son Jesse on guitar, they are back and stronger than ever. Last year was a rich and fulfilling year, with an overwhelming response at radio and TV to the comeback single How I Got Over, a four-month summer stint of festivals including Isle of Wight and an ecstatic Glastonbury Festival comeback, a sell-out UK tour and all while fitting in the band’s first studio album in 17 years.

After 20 years in the business, the guys – Gary Stringer, Jack Bessant, Jesse Wood and Dominic Greensmith – are still proving popular after selling out gigs on their latest tour. Reef will perform a range of hit singles from across the years including Place Your Hands, Come Back Brighter, Consideration and Yer Old but also some of the amazing new music.

Meanwhile, Cast will headline on Sunday night. Noel Gallagher famously described seeing Cast live as a ‘religious experience’. Cast originally formed in 1992 from the ashes of two of the most legendary and lauded guitar bands of all time, The La’s and Shack. They released four albums. Their debut, All Change, which was the biggest selling debut album of all time for Polydor Records, while their second album, Mother Nature Calls, went platinum.

The Lightning Seeds will also play hits from their back catalogue.

Other bands on the Camper Calling Bill include Artful Dodger, Backbeat Soundsystem, The Undercover Hippy, The Elephant Trees, Afro Cluster, Caution Horses, Space, Lucy Spraggan, Barbarella’s Bang Bang, Lakuta, Grafton Ash, Scott Matthews, Smooth Ends and Jack in a Box.

There will also be main stage slots from Musical Youth, BETSY, CC Smugglers, The Atlantic Players, Thrill Collins, Ravellas, Will Varley and Animal Noise. The Freshy Squeezed Stage, devoted to emerging music, will feature Bella McKendree, Sonia Stein and Monty Taft.